Minor things that bother you

[kkt]

They may be tagless in the neck, but at the waistline there's a redonkulous scratchy label providing washing instructions in 17 languages.

I wish they were in 17 languages, rather than just a bunch of unintuitive geometric shapes.

Yes.  Then one day, thousands of years from now, an archeologist could find one and it would be the new Rosetta Stone.

[Scott5114]

They may be tagless in the neck, but at the waistline there's a redonkulous scratchy label providing washing instructions in 17 languages.

I wish they were in 17 languages, rather than just a bunch of unintuitive geometric shapes.

Yes.  Then one day, thousands of years from now, an archeologist could find one and it would be the new Rosetta Stone.

Although its meaning has been lost to time, one phrase which frequently appears in the common literature of the Late American Period was "Machine wash warm with like colors". While the meaning of this phrase is lost to time, it was obviously very significant to the Late Americans, as evidenced by the fact they frequently inscribed it on textiles in places that would have been in direct contact with the skin at all times. Interestingly, such inscriptions were seldom found in places where they would be readable by the wearer. It is thus possible the phrase had some sort of ritual significance, perhaps as a good luck charm, or religious in nature.

[SSOWorld]

Looks like Nauru wants to now be known as Naoero.

This is getting silly.  Pretty soon they'll expect us to swap out the z for an s in Brazil, and stick a t at the beginning of Chad, and hock up a loogie instead of saying Hungary.

As long as it lacks diacritics, I'm generally okay with calling it whatever the locals call it (assuming no English translation a la Ivory Coast).

is it Budapest or Budapescht?

side note - Budapest is generally divided into 2 super districts.
Buda, and Pest

[1995hoo]

is it Budapest or Budapescht?

side note - Budapest is generally divided into 2 super districts.
Buda, and Pest

If you're trying to pronounce it the Hungarian way, the latter pronunciation is closer to authentic. My wife is of Hungarian descent (both of her parents were Hungarian) and she spoke that language exclusively until she started school.

[kphoger]

Although its meaning has been lost to time, one phrase which frequently appears in the common literature of the Late American Period was "Machine wash warm with like colors". While the meaning of this phrase is lost to time, it was obviously very significant to the Late Americans, as evidenced by the fact they frequently inscribed it on textiles in places that would have been in direct contact with the skin at all times. Interestingly, such inscriptions were seldom found in places where they would be readable by the wearer. It is thus possible the phrase had some sort of ritual significance, perhaps as a good luck charm, or religious in nature.

Have you ever read this?

Body Ritual among the Nacirema [H. Miner, 1956] (.pdf)

[JayhawkCO]

Basically if the country doesn't request it from the international community, I wouldn't use it.

And, see, for me, I just don't really care if "the country" requests it or not.  They (whoever "they" are) can just let other languages say the name of their country however they historically have, and they can get over themselves if they don't like it.  I certainly don't care if some other language pronounces or spells "America" differently, and I certainly wouldn't expect them to change their dictionaries just because the U.S. congress requested them to.  The natives of Suomi can keep calling us "Amerikka" whether our government wants them too or not, and I'll keep calling them "Finland" whether their government wants us to stop or not.

I mean, to go to the extreme the other way, do you still call France "Gaul"? Or a more recent change, do you call it "Samoa" or "Western Samoa"? At some point, the name changes. For the countries that don't give a shit, like Sweden, we stick with it. For those that do, we change.

[vdeane]

A recent Outlook update has made it so that I can't categorize or move messages after reading them.  I have to click off and then back in or I get the dreaded "this function cannot be performed because the message contents have changed" error.

[kphoger]

I mean, to go to the extreme the other way, do you still call France "Gaul"?

Doesn't that name change predate Modern English?  That is to say, American English has never called it 'Gaul' to begin with?

Or a more recent change, do you call it "Samoa" or "Western Samoa"?

By the time I started calling it anything, other than while paging through a book of flags, its name had already changed.

At some point, the name changes. For the countries that don't give a shit, like Sweden, we stick with it. For those that do, we change.

I think my main issue is when they expect us to de-English the English name for their country.

It makes sense to drop 'Western' from Samoa, because there's no Eastern Samoa anymore.  It makes sense to drop "The" from Ukraine, because they're insecure of its negative connotation.

But Swaziland is just the anglicized version of Eswatini, and Turkey is just the anglicized version of Türkiye, and Ivory Coast is just the anglicized version of Côte d'Ivoire.

Gaul is not just the anglicized version of France, and Southern Rhodesia is not just the anglicized version of Zimbabwe.

[JayhawkCO]

But Swaziland is just the anglicized version of Eswatini

But in this case, English is one of their two official languages, and they call it eSwatini in both languages, so it's not like they view it as an anglicization.

I dunno. I guess I just don't find it too much of an ask to call a country what they want to be called. :shrug:

Not to make it about another topic, but that's why the whole pronoun in the trans community is a non-issue for me. I just call people want they want to be called. I might screw up sometimes, no different than if I call someone Katie instead of Kate, but if I know their preference, it's not that hard to accommodate the request.

[kphoger]

Not to make it about another topic, but that's why the whole pronoun in the trans community is a non-issue for me. I just call people want they want to be called. I might screw up sometimes, no different than if I call someone Katie instead of Kate, but if I know their preference, it's not that hard to accommodate the request.

Let's not go there! 

[Scott5114]

Apparently Naoero straight up legally changed the name of the country to "Republic of Naoero". So now there is no such place as Nauru.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

[Scott5114]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

If it had numbered highways we would be having an argument about it on the wiki. But as far as I know, it doesn't.

[Rothman]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

Define casual? 

[Max Rockatansky]

Isn't " Poopypantsfart" just a round about way of saying "shart?"

[kphoger]

Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart ...

... I would still call it Nauru.

Define casual? 

Shorts and tee-shirt.

[Rothman]

Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart ...

... I would still call it Nauru.

Define casual? 

Shorts and tee-shirt.

Hm.  Then I have had a casual conversation about Nauru.

[TheCatalyst31]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

I have, because I like to bring up the time they lost $7 million by investing in a terrible musical.

[wxfree]

mAn = one
mEn = more than one
Relatedly,
womAn = one
womEn = more than one

I understand that if you're really stupid it might take an entire second of intensive concentration to see the pattern, but you might make the effort still, not in spite of the challenge, but for the opportunity to overcome the challenge.

[GaryV]

womAn = one
womEn = more than one

But why does that change the first vowel sound in the word? Or was that your point?

[kphoger]

mAn = one
mEn = more than one
Relatedly,
womAn = one
womEn = more than one

I understand that if you're really stupid it might take an entire second of intensive concentration to see the pattern, but you might make the effort still, not in spite of the challenge, but for the opportunity to overcome the challenge.

This is because the English word 'woman' is, if you trace it back far enough in history, literally 'wife-man'.  'Wif' was the Old English word for 'woman'.

wifman/wifmen → wimman/wimmen → womman/wommen → woman/women

[JayhawkCO]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

And in this case, it's not a change in pronunciation or anything. It's just a change in spelling.

[wxfree]

womAn = one
womEn = more than one

But why does that change the first vowel sound in the word? Or was that your point?

It doesn't make much sense that it changes the first syllable, but that's how this language goes.  My gripe is how many people use the wrong word, as if it's an ancient code requiring an advanced degree in linguistics to decipher, something normal people have no hope of understanding.

[vdeane]

mAn = one
mEn = more than one
Relatedly,
womAn = one
womEn = more than one

I understand that if you're really stupid it might take an entire second of intensive concentration to see the pattern, but you might make the effort still, not in spite of the challenge, but for the opportunity to overcome the challenge.

This is because the English word 'woman' is, if you trace it back far enough in history, literally 'wife-man'.  'Wif' was the Old English word for 'woman'.

wifman/wifmen → wimman/wimmen → womman/wommen → woman/women

I remember hearing that the word that we now use "man" for used to be "wereman" - which is where the "were" in "werewolf" comes from.  At some point, they must have decided that "man" and "wereman" were redundant with each other, which is interesting as "person" presumably replaced the root "man".

[kphoger]

I mean, who in here (other than Chris/JayhawkCO probably) have ever had a casual conversation with someone else about Nauru/Naoero? It's a nothing burger. Who cares what it calls itself. Even if it called itself Poopypantsfart I doubt anyone would talk about it after a day or two.

And in this case, it's not a change in pronunciation or anything.

Yes, it is.

Nauru = Now-roo
Naoero = Now-eh-ro